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Are These Three Challenges Slowing Your Business Down?

Are These Three Challenges Slowing Your Business Down?

More than ever, employers need to stay nimble and agile, with the ability to respond to customer demands and marketplace trends promptly. Unfortunately, employers face several challenges that slow them down.

Business administration is one. According to a 2017 survey from advisory group The Alternative Board, business owners spend only 32% of their time working ON their business (meaning core, revenue-generating work). Two-thirds of their time go toward administrative-type tasks that don’t earn them a dime. Simultaneously, nearly two-thirds (63%) work over 50+ hours per week. A Gallup poll found similar numbers: small business owners work twice as much as regular employees.

Decision making is another. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos even advocates making big decisions without all the information, all in the interest of keeping pace with the modern speed of business. In a letter to shareholders, he wrote, "Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, in most cases, you're probably being slow."

Regulation and legal considerations are another pair of challenges that make it harder than ever for business owners to keep up.

"The impact of regulatory burden cannot be overstated: more than one-third have held off on business investment due to uncertainty on a pending regulation, and more than half have held off on hiring a new employee due to regulatory burdens," writes National Small Business Association (NSBA) Chair Pedro Alfonso and President and CEO Todd McCracken.

In fact, the NSBA asked members to estimate how much money they would spend on compliance in their first year if they were starting their businesses today. The average answer was $83,019. It goes without saying that compliance issues take time as well as money. When owners can’t or don’t hire new employees, they typically handle the tasks themselves.

This is partly why outsourcing has such potent impacts on organizations: they allow companies to lighten their burdens enough to fly. According to Deloitte’s 2016 Global Outsourcing Survey, companies outsource precisely because it enables them to focus on core business (57%) and solves capacity issues (47%). The fact that it also helps to cut costs (59%) is just icing on the cake when it means businesses can move at the speed they need.

Need more information on HR administration or regulatory compliance? CoAdvantage, one of the nation’s largest Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs), helps small to mid-sized companies with risk management, workers’ comp, compliance and HR administration. To learn more about our ability to create a strategic HR function in your business that drives business growth potential, contact us today.